Analysis of poem

My badge has a Latin motto
Hope for the future
The future is hope
Or something

At times black crows try to interrupt
When we sing the National Anthem

It is difficult to maintain
The whiteness of my shoes
Especially on Wednesdays

I must admit there is something quite special
About the bare thighs of hardworking scouts

The Malay chauffeurs
Who wait for my schoolmates
Sit on the car park kerb
Telling jokes to one another

Seven to the power of five is unreasonable

On Chinese New Year
Mrs Lee dressed up
In a sarong kebaya
And sang Bengawan Solo

The capital of Singapore is Singapore

My best friend did a heroic thing once
Shaded all A’s
For his Chinese Language
Multiple-choice paper

In our annual yearbook
There is a photograph of me

Pushing a wheelchair and smiling
They caught me
At the exact moment

When my eyes were actually closed

Analysis:

I think the writer is trying to be sarcastic to the school's administration right from the start.

In the first stanza, he said that he did not know what the school motto and badge meant, treating it like nothing but something useless.

In the second stanza, he shows himself as a patroitic person as he uses the word 'interrupt'. He really likes the National Anthem, that is why he didn't like the crow interupting him from singing it.

In the third stanza, the writer, though wheel-chair bound, tried to fit into the crowd as he mentioned his shoes got dirty. It is very likely that he plays games in the mud, like soccer, or captain ball with his friends.

In the fourth stanza, he was probably very poor and envied the other rich classmates who had chaeuffers to bring them to school.In the fifth stanza, it was apparent that the writer was envious of scouts who were healthy and strong, compared to himself, as a handicapped person.

In the sixth stanza, the writer's teacher sings a malay song in chinese new year! It shows a harmony between the two races during his time and may also symbolize a harmony between handicapped people and normal people, meaning the writer could fit into the society quite well.

In the seventh stanza,Singapore's capital is Singapore: This is a solid truth, like how the writer wants to express that his handicap is a solid truth and he has already accepted the fact that he is handicapped.

In the eigth stanza, he tries to be sarcastic of less-smart classmates doing things like shading all 'A' by labelling this actions as 'heroic'. He was probably quite smart.


In the last stanza, the truth shocks us: The writer is handicapped. This is not the shocking thing, it is his description of himself that shocks us. He was wheel-chair bound yet could live life normally like any other child.

Bravo!

Rhythm and rhyme
This poem has no obvious rhyme or rhythm. There are some words that rhyme, though. Like 'bengawan solo' and 'actually closed', 'maintain' and 'wednesdays'.

Alliteration
I couldn't find any alliteration in this poem.

Imagery
Appeal to sight - the photograph with the writer pushing a wheelchair, with his eyes closed. This is a description that appeals to sight and to create a mental image.

Appeal to sight - there is another one about his teacher Mrs Lee. It vividly describes her as dressed up in a Sarong Kebaya.

There is also the description of the Malay Chaeuffers teeling jokes to one another on the car park kerb.

Besides these, I couldn't find any more appeals to senses.

Exaggaration
I feel that the line about seven to the power of five is unreasonable is a bit of a exaggeration. Seven to the power of five is quite easy to solve, if hard, not unreasonable. The writer is trying to express his feelings that he didn't like maths or thought that Maths was hard to him.

Simile
There are no similes in the poem.

Metaphor
There are no similes in the poem

Onomatopoiea
There are no Onomatopoieas in this poem.

Personification - Giving human traits to things. There are no personifications in this poem.

Idioms - words that has a group meaning. Eg. Easy as pie. There are no idioms in this poem.

Symbolism - there are some symbolism in the poem, I think.

'Difficult to maintain my white shoes, especially on Wednesdays.'

I think white shoes represent his control of mischeif. It was difficult to maintain his control of mischeif in school, especially on Wednesdays, maybe because there is PE lessons on Wednesdays.

Mood
The mood is generally sad, but with humour in it. The writer feels sad that he has left the school and misses his school a lot, from his vivid description of many things that happen when he was in school.

There is also some humour in the poem, like how his friend put all answers 'A' in the mutiple choice paper, and how his eyes were closed when the school took a picture of him pushing a wheelchair.

Tone
The writer attitude towards the school was not really appreciative of their efforts to educate him. He said that 'seven to the power of five is unreasonable', meaning he did not like the subject of Maths and feel that the school is too unreasonable in giving question to them (in terms of difficulty)

However, the writer seemed to be more "friendly" and towards his friends as can be seen from how he chose to write something humorous about his friend, instead of something they did wrongly to him.

He labelled it as "heroric"!